Fairfax names Steve Moore basketball coach

Steve Moore, a former All-CIF basketball player at Compton Dominguez who has been an assistant coach at Harvard-Westlake for four years, has been named boys’ basketball coach at Fairfax High.

He takes over for Steve Baik, who resigned after three seasons as coach. Fairfax won the City Section Open Division championship last season. Baik is the one who brought Moore to the attention of Fairfax officials.

Moore introduced himself to his new team on Wednesday afternoon.

“They were excited,” Moore said. “They did everything but knock me down.”

Moore, 37, has been an assistant at JSerra and Gardena Serra and coached travel basketball.

“Awesome,” Harvard-Westlake coach David Rebibo said when told of Moore’s hiring.

“He’s an incredibly good man who’s an incredibly hard worker,” Rebibo said. “His energy is contagious.”

Moore worked to develop players’ individual skills at Harvard-Westlake.

At Dominguez, he played on top teams and was also captain of the baseball team. He graduated in 2000 and later played basketball at Arizona State.

He’ll take over a program with high expectations and one of the best in the City Section.

It was an historic day for Southern California basketball.

Moore and new Santa Margarita coach Justin Williams-Bell, a former UC Riverside assistant, are the first African-American head basketball coaches at their respective schools.

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